DeWilde's Wholesale Nursery largest field-grown operation in state

Tim Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

DeWilde's Wholesale Nursery has roughly 300 acres of field-grown trees and shrubs just outside of Lynden, the biggest field-grown nursery in the state.

LYNDEN -- DeWilde’s Wholesale Nursery started as a logical step for owner Emil DeWilde in 1963 and has turned into the largest field-grown nursery in Washington.
  Headquartered on Old Guide Road south of Lynden, DeWilde’s now has roughly 300 acres of fields in Whatcom County and sells its stock all across North America.
  Ed DeWilde, Emil’s son and now the vice president of the operation -- he started as the general manager in 1979 -- said that DeWilde’s has over 400 varieties of shrubs and trees and is best known for its conifers and maple varieties.
  Emil started DeWilde’s Nursery -- a retail outlet in Bellingham that is now run by Ed’s sister Margaret -- in 1947. Soon thereafter customers were asking for help planting and designing, so Emil added a landscape business on site.
  The next logical step for him was to add a field operation to supply his nursery with his own locally grown stock.
  Things grew from there.
  As the nursery continued to blossom, more fields were added. DeWilde’s is now up to six different parcels, but Ed said that to go any larger might take the nursery into an entirely new business model.
  And while DeWilde’s Wholesale still supplies DeWilde’s Nursery, the business is busy selling all across Washington, but is particularly strong selling into British Columbia and Kansas.
  “A large percentage of what we sell goes out of state,” Ed said. “We go wherever the flow goes. B.C., Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Kansas are strong market areas.”
  And while DeWilde’s does the vast majority of its business outside of the county, Ed said he is always appreciative of the local nurseries and landscapers who come to him.
  DeWilde’s is continually cycling its mainstays of conifers -- cedars, pines and firs -- and maples and oaks.
  Following the trends can be tricky. “Trends in the market are hard to keep up with when we are propagating our own material and it takes five years (for a tree to be sold),” Ed said.
  That is why DeWilde’s mainly sticks to what it is known for.
  With field-grown material, DeWilde’s capacity to grow trees of all sizes becomes its specialty -- an aspect that a greenhouse-based operation simply can’t undertake.
  The process starts with a start, of all things.
  DeWilde’s will either propagate its own material from seed or cutting or purchase already started stock, although 80 percent of the starts come from on site.
  The young trees start in a greenhouse before moving to a holding house and then eventually outside. The entire process averages out at five years.
  And each year starts with a flurry of activity, before it slowly fades.
  DeWilde’s annual workforce of 25 balloons to 35 when the rush of digging, shipping and planting comes to a head in the spring and stays strong until June. The work starts to taper down in August and September, giving the entire nursery a few months to regroup before the massive push kicks up again.
  And massive it is. The nursery industry is the third largest agricultural enterprise in Whatcom County.
  While DeWilde’s is by far the largest of the operations with its 300 acres, Fourth Corner Nurseries (60 acres) on Sand Road and Guide Nursery (50 acres) on Guide Meridian and Hemmi roads are making a mark too. The strictly greenhouse operations of VanWingerden on Portal Way near Custer and Pacific Growers on Markworth Road outside of Lynden are also helping county business.
  And while DeWilde’s is selling its product all over, the buyers remain varied too.
  Ed said that clients include re-wholesalers, landscapers, developers and garden centers.
  Ed said that the vast majority of the time he never even meets his clients. Most business is done on the phone, the fax machine or via e-mail.
  It is word-of-mouth reputation and DeWilde’s presence at trade shows that keeps the business growing.
  For those interested in purchasing from DeWilde’s, unless you are a commercial landscaper, visit the retail nursery at 3410 Northwest Ave., in Bellingham.
  E-mail Tim Newcomb at tim@lyndentribune.com.